Indefinite Renewal Page 19

  This is ridiculous, he finally decided, initial high spirits dampened somewhat by the rude reception he was getting. There’s got to be somebody here who can help me. He glanced across the street again and saw that the woman was still sitting on the steps, watching him—she was smiling, probably at his attempts, and beckoned again when he looked over. For a moment he almost considered asking her for help, but decided against it—he didn’t want her to think the wrong thing, and he didn’t have the time to explain the mistake. Instead he glanced around at the stores again—maybe if he got off the busy street, and tried asking someone inside, they could help him.

  There was another market past the martial arts school, a smaller one with candles hanging in the window alongside dried fruit, and he strode over to the doorway and peered inside. The little building was crowded with crates of foods, and rows of candles, incense, batteries, and other small items, and there was a small counter with a cash register along one wall. A red curtain covered a doorway set against the back wall, and there was no one in sight.

  “Hello?” Nick called out, stepping into the relative coolness of the store, and immediately heard the stamp of feet approaching. A second later a man came out, followed by two small children. The man had on a dirty white apron, which he wiped his hands on as he bowed expectantly toward Nick. The children, a boy and a girl with identical black bobs and faded clothing, stared curiously out from behind the shelter of their father’s legs.

  “Yes, I was wondering if you could help me,” Nick began, and the man bowed again, dark eyes fixed on him. “I’m looking for someone to tell my fortune,” he explained, and any further words were cut off as the two children turned and raced back through the curtain, shouting something he couldn’t make out. I hope I didn’t say something wrong, he found himself thinking, but the man smiled at him in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring manner, and he stayed where he was, shifting uneasily from one foot to the other. At least he hasn’t hurried off down the street yet, Nick reminded himself as the silence stretched out.

  Nothing happened for several minutes, although he could hear voices somewhere in back. He was just starting to consider trying someplace else when the two children returned, leading between them a small elderly woman in a worn blue robe.

  “You want fortune told?” she asked, absently pulling her hands free from her grandchildren, and Nick realized that the children had understood his question and had gone to fetch her for him. He favored them with a smile, but they shrank behind the old woman, and he turned back to her, nodding excitedly. This store had evidently been the right place to ask.

  “Ten dollar,” the little woman told him, holding forth a wizened old hand, and Nick fumbled for the money in his pocket. He handed her a ten and she inspected it carefully for a moment, then nodded and pocketed the bill, turning and beckoning him to follow her behind the curtain. The father stayed behind, as did the children, and they vanished from sight as the red fabric draped back over the doorway.

  Nick found himself in a small room, furnished with two worn pillows, a small low table, and a hanging lamp. The old woman seated herself on one pillow, gestured for Nick to do the same, and reached under the table for a small wrapped object while he was settling himself. The object turned out to be a crystal ball, and she reverently untangled it from its heavy cloth wrappings, and set in on a stand in the center of the table. Then she closed her eyes and chanted something softly, occasionally making odd passes over the ball with her hands. Nick watched closely, and looked for some pattern to her movements, while a far-off part of his brain wondered how he would get out of here without the father and children attacking him.

  Suddenly the woman’s eyes flew open, and he jumped in spite of himself. Then, as he watched, she turned her gaze to the crystal, and stared into its depths as if searching for something. Nick studied it as well, but didn’t see anything other than a distorted view of the wooden stand and the table beneath it. He sighed and turned his gaze back to the fortuneteller herself, and studied her face closely, trying to decide if she was really looking for something or if the ball was just a prop, to add atmosphere.

  After a moment she spoke, and her words echoed oddly around the small, curtain-draped room, reverberating far more than he would have thought possible.

  “You have a powerful spirit,” she told him gravely, and he leaned forward to catch her words more clearly. Her dark eyes lifted from the globe and studied him carefully, unblinking. “You use other people, lesser people, as tools in your own games and desires, and you seek the company of a handful of individuals who share similar power and similar goals.”

  Nick found himself holding his breath, and let it out slowly. That certainly sounded like a description of the Renewed—he wasn’t really seeking their company, but he was joining it, and slowly getting to know some of them, so even that was fairly accurate. He had been afraid that the old woman might be a fraud, especially after he had seen the carnival-style trappings and the regulation crystal ball, but maybe she was the genuine article, after all! He studied her face carefully, and she stared back but didn’t speak. She seemed to be waiting for something.

  “Go on,” he urged her, and at last she nodded and studied her ball again, passing her hands over it as if to sweep clear the mists of destiny from his future.

  “Yes,” she finally told him, hands hovering unsteadily on the sides of the globe, “I see it now. You will have a long and full life, and will encounter many people.” Read absorb for encounter, Nick corrected wryly, but he didn’t say anything out loud, and she continued. “You will also meet a woman,” she revealed, and he smiled at that, even as he felt a sinking in the pit of his stomach. That sounded suspiciously like one of the more standard opening lines—he had had his fortune told once before, in college, and the woman then had also said he would meet someone. That had been four years ago, and he was still waiting. So maybe the bit about great power and other people was just part of her routine as well, to please people’s ego and sense of importance, and not a specific reference to him, after all.

  Of course, she might still be telling him the truth, and he might meet someone, but it wasn’t very likely, and it was too generic to carry any weight of credulity. He bit back a sigh of disappointment and forced himself to hear her out, but after the initial excitement his hopes had quickly vanished, in hot pursuit of his money.

  “She is very beautiful, this lady,” the old woman continued, “with long blond hair and blue eyes.”

  “Blond hair?” Nick interrupted, amusement starting to take the edge off of irritation as a playful twinkle came to his eye. “Are you sure? I prefer redheads, actually.”

  “No, blond,” the eerie little figure in front of him insisted. “I see her. You will meet her on the bus, and the two of you will live a long and happy life together. You will meet her soon.”

  “When?” He wanted to know. “Today? Tomorrow? Next week?”

  “Soon,” was the only answer he got.

  “What’s her name?” he tried, biting back a laugh at her attempts. “Or how about her phone number? Maybe her social security number?”

  The woman either didn’t recognize the sarcasm in his tone, or ignored it—she merely shook her head without removing her eyes from the smooth globe in front of her.

  “The future does not reveal that,’ she replied, and Nick remembered seeing a press conference once where the speaker used a very similar expression to block questions he didn’t want to or couldn’t answer.

  “What else do you see?” Nick asked then, wondering why he had let himself in for this, or paid ten bucks for it. A movie would have been cheaper, and a hell of a lot more entertaining.

  “You have several good friends,” the old lady replied after a small pause, face almost pressed to the crystal’s smooth surface. “Trust them—they care for you.”

  Okay, he nodded to himself, going down a mental list. She’s done love and friendship so far, and long life. That leaves my job, I think.


  Sure enough, she studied the ball for a second longer, then nodded as if it had told her something she liked. “You will be promoted in a year or two,” she relayed, and Nick sighed a little. “You are unhappy with your job now, but it will improve.” Her gaze finally lifted to him, and she smiled wisely. “You must stick with it.”

  “Thanks,” he commented wryly, but again she didn’t seem to notice. Instead she reached out and grasped the crystal before her carefully, returning it to its wrappings and stowing it safely back under the table before standing up and beckoning for Nick to do the same.

  “Session over,” she told him, and held the curtain aside for him to step out. The bright made him blink, eyes watering after the dimness of the little room, and he took a staggering step forward, hands trying to shade him from the glare of the front window. The little old woman didn’t follow him, but dropped the barrier back behind him, leaving him standing in the store and blinking furiously, dropping his hands to massage his cramped legs. The father and kids were nowhere to be seen, and Nick stood there for a moment, stretching and yawning, before squinting and stepping back into the hot sun outside.

  He didn’t bother to look back.

  Well, that was a waste of money, he grumbled to himself as he turned away, and then had to laugh at his own disappointment. Such high expectations! Had he really expected the first person he ran into here to be a true psychic, when he stood in the one place in town most famous for fortune-telling and the like? Of course most of them would be fakes! They only had to fool dumb tourists, after all, he thought to himself. And suckers like him.

  He glanced around again, and a glimmer of white caught his eye, off to the side of the little shop he had just come from. There was a woman standing there, dressed in a simple white shirt and blue jeans, and it had been the flash of her teeth that had caught his eye, gleaming in the sun’s light. It was the same woman he had seen earlier, across the street, and she was looking straight at him, and smiling—up closer she seemed a little older, more toward the upper end of middle-age, but her hair was still glossy and black, and hung in one long braid down over her right shoulder. Now she didn’t strike him so much as the hooker he had first taken her for—in fact, she had a friendly look about her, and after a second Nick found himself smiling back. That seemed to rouse her, and she stepped away from the wall she had been leaning on, and approached him, gliding effortlessly through the crowd.

  “Granny Lo took you for a ride, huh?” She remarked as she reached him, and he realized with a start that she had probably been able to see the old woman leading him away through the front window. Since she already seemed to know the answer, he didn’t bother to reply, but just studied her closely. She stared back, and then smiled again.

  “How much?”

  “Ten dollars,” he replied, feeling a bit foolish about it now. She laughed and shook her head.

  “Boy, she must have liked you! Normally she only charges five.” Dark eyes continued to laugh at him. “Did your true love have blond hair?”

  “And blue eyes,” he added, smiling himself at the absurdity of it all. The woman shook her head.

  “Figures. She thinks all white men want blue-eyed blondes.” Then she studied him more closely, hands twitching at her long braid. “Do you really want your fortune told?”

  He had to laugh at that one. “Why, for fifteen dollars will I get a redhead?” She didn’t laugh back though, and he quieted down after a second.

  “No, I’m serious,” she told him. “I’ll tell you your fortune—your real fortune. It costs thirty bucks, but you pay me afterwards, and only if you think it’s worth it. Agreed?” He hesitated for a second, not wanting to be taken in twice in such a short space of time, but there was something in her eyes that seemed sincere, even honest, and after a moment he nodded reluctantly.

  “All right.”

  “Good.” She took his hand then and swiveled around, leading him back to the little shop and then around it, to the narrow stairway that he had first seen her on—it ran up to an unmarked door on the second floor of the building next door, and she made no sound as her feet padded rhythmically up the steps. Nick followed wordlessly, steps creaking faintly under his weight, up and through the low entranceway, and found himself in a sparse but clean apartment, being seated on a threadbare couch in front of another low table.

  The woman sat next to him, though, and took his hand in hers, massaging his palm with delicate fingers.

  “So why me?” He finally asked, eyes watching her hands work on his own. “Or do you always accost people on the street?”

  She shook her head, eyes still fixed on his palm. “No, I don’t bother very often. I’m not even a fortuneteller, normally—I own the bookstore below here, and I make a living at that. But every once in a while someone comes along, and I feel compelled to read them. You’re one of them—I could tell you really wanted a fortune, not some bullshit from a blank crystal ball.” She smiled proudly. “No one ever leaves here disappointed—I may not promise true love and promotions the way Granny Lo does, but I give the truth, and people know it.”

  “Are you a psychic, then?” Nick asked her, holding his breath while she paused and frowned.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” the woman finally admitted, turning his hand over now and starting on the back as Nick let his breath out in a sigh. “My mother had the Sight, and her mother before her. I have a little of it, too, and sometimes I get visions, but not often. Usually I can only do it with specific people, and sometimes it’s kind of hazy.” She raised her eyes and looked at him, fingers stilling on the back of his hand. “How does that feel?”

  “Great,” he admitted, flexing his fingers slightly. “Does it help to read my future?”

  “No,” she responded, a faint smile playing across her face. “But it does relax the person, and that makes it easier. Besides, it helps me get a feel for you.” She frowned slightly, and a puzzled look crossed her face. “Odd.”

  “What is?”

  Her eyes met his briefly. “Most people have an aura about them, that tells what kind of person they are,” she explained slowly. “Someone who was a warrior would be red, a teacher is usually blue, a scholar usually white, and so on. But yours is a whole lot of colors, all mixed together, although the white and blue do seem predominant.” She smiled then. “So you’re either multi-talented, or you’re psychotic.”

  Nick laughed with her at that, but at the same time he felt a faint tightening in the back of his throat. Had she really seen that? And was it as accurate as he thought, and for those reasons? She intruded on his thoughts then, tightening her grip on his hand slightly to get his attention, and he turning back to her and smiled again.

  “Ready to start?” She asked him softly, and he nodded eagerly, repressing a sudden fear of what she might find. “All right, then.” She shut her eyes and the room fell silent—Nick could hear the faint bustle of people from the street below, but blocked the noise from his head and watched her carefully.

  “You . . . you have an odd life ahead of you,” she told him after a moment, brow furrowing slightly as her fingers stroked his hand. “I see your lifeline before me, and it stretches on into the distance, like an old tree, but it stops and starts a few times.” Her frown deepened. “It stopped a little while ago, and then started again, and since then it’s gotten stronger and stronger, sometimes almost doubling in size. It’s got high points to it, too, like a brain pattern, as if there were moments when your life was more full than others.”

  She really can do it, Nick realized with a start, eyes widening in surprise. Those jumps were where he had absorbed someone, and their force had been added to his own! He felt a surge of elation—he had found a true psychic! Or she had found him, which was even better. But she was speaking again, and he forced his excitement down as he returned his attention to her words.

  “. . . you have a great many thoughts inside you,” she was saying, “and every time your lifeline peaks there are more adde
d. It’s as if you were absorbing thoughts and energy from somewhere.” She frowned again. “It’s going to happen again, too—several times, actually, but the next one will be very soon. Within the next few minutes, in fact.”

  Then her eyes flew open, and she stared unseeing into the air in front of her, hand tightening painfully as her nails dug into Nick’s flesh.

  “OH MY GOD!”

  “What do you see?” he demanded, leaning forward. She didn’t answer, and he reached out with his free hand, grabbing her by the shoulder and shaking her lightly.

  “What do you see?”

  Slowly her eyes refocused and swung toward him, and he could see in them a great horror, burning to be free from those dark orbs.

  “You absorb other people,” she whispered, voice a dry rasp across her throat. “And take their life, their mind, inside yourself. It’s how you stay alive.” Her eyes met his, and he was shocked to see that the horror was fading rapidly, to be replaced by an odd acceptance, a calmness that he found both comforting and a little disturbing. He had to strain to hear her words, faint against the background noise.

  “I’m next, aren’t I?”

  He nodded and took her hand in his, trying to be gentle. “Yes, I’m afraid you are. I wouldn’t do it to you, but I need your particular gifts. But don’t worry—part of you will live on with me, for as long as I am alive.”

  She nodded at that, and a slow smile spread across her face, sad and yet peaceful. “Yes,” she agreed, and her eyes slid shut again. “I can see that now—through you a part of me will know almost eternal life, and be raised to a new level of ability that I have never reached before.” Her head turned slightly, until she was facing him squarely, and he could almost feel her studying him, even through closed eyelids.